Oldest U.S. Black Church Elects First Female Bishop

The nation’s oldest black church Tuesday night elected the first female bishop in the denomination’s history.

Delegates to the general conference of the African Methodist Episcopal Church elected the Rev. Vashti McKenzie of Baltimore to one of four bishop positions.

“Because of God’s favor, the stained glass ceiling has been pierced and broken,” McKenzie said.

The Rev. Richard Norris of Philadelphia was also elected bishop. Balloting was continuing with two more spots to be decided.

Among the candidates for those remaining spots was one other woman, the Rev. Carolyn Tyler Guidry, a presiding elder and former pastor who supervises 19 AME churches in the Los Angeles area. Guidry ran unsuccessfully for bishop at the last general conference in 1996. McKenzie was a first-time candidate.

A ballot majority was required to win each of the four bishop’s positions vacated by retirements. None of the 42 candidates received enough votes on the first ballot, so more voting rounds were planned into the night.

About 1,800 delegates are attending the general conference and were eligible to vote. Historically, multiple rounds of balloting are needed to elect bishops, church spokesman Mike McKinney said. McKenzie was elected on the second ballot.

The AME Church has never had any women among the 20 bishops that govern it during the four-year intervals between general conferences. Founded 213 years ago, it is the oldest U.S. black denomination and has 2.3 million members in the United States, Canada, Britain, Africa and the Caribbean region.

Last weekend, AME delegates rejected a resolution that would have required election of a woman as one of the new bishops. Critics of the proposal said bishops should win on their merits, not because of their gender. Supporters argued, however, that the male-dominated church’s history of failing to elect female bishops made it necessary to boost their chances of winning.

Women had run for bishop in the AME for 20 years without winning. Guidry said her 1996 showing, in which she received 200 votes on the first ballot and 193 on the second before withdrawing, was the best a female candidate had made until now.

Male and female activists attending this year’s general conference have argued that the church should have a female bishop because women have served it capably for years as pastors and supervising elders, and because women make up 70% of the denomination’s membership.